Archive & Install Questions

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lombarke

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So I think I'm going to make the switch in the upcoming weeks, and was planning on doing an Archive & Install, as opposed to a straight Upgrade. From what I've read, it's somewhat like a clean install, but it creates a folder "Old System"? And when I'm done, I can drag my programs back over to the new system and all will be, theoretically, peachy. When I finally have everything back to where I want it, can I delete the "Old System" folder to conserve disk space? Or will that screw things up automatically?

Also, I have iLife '05 that came with my PowerBook (it's only 3 weeks old), and I read that I'd have to extract the files from the Panther CD that came with it...is there an "ilife" folder on the Panther CD that I just drag over or what?

Thanks for all your help, you guys are great.
 
I'm glad you think we're great (whomever that "you guys" concerns, erh...). Now:

1.) Yes, Archive & Install is a clean install that saves your old system in a "Previous System" folder.

2.) No, you can't just drag your programs back and be peachy - unless all of them do NOT use the "Application Support" folder. I'd do the following: Drag them over, and those who don't work fine - reinstall them. If they _still_ don't work fine, get updaters for them that work fine in Tiger.

3.) iLife should be somewhere on the DVDs you got with the PowerBook. Use Tinker Tool (see versiontracker.com or macupdate.com) to let the Finder show ALL files. Even hidden ones. Then go to the DVD and just browse around. You'll find the packages. After you've installed them on your archiveandreinstalled Tiger, you can turn the feature off again in Tiger.

If you _can_, however, I'd choose another road. Get a FW drive big enough for cloning your whole PB drive to it. Use Carbon Copy Cloner in 10.3.x to clone the drive. (Again, search VT or MU for that tool, see above.) After that, do a CLEAN install of Tiger with the FW drive disconnected.
 
fryke said:
I'm glad you think we're great (whomever that "you guys" concerns, erh...). Now:

1.) Yes, Archive & Install is a clean install that saves your old system in a "Previous System" folder.

2.) No, you can't just drag your programs back and be peachy - unless all of them do NOT use the "Application Support" folder. I'd do the following: Drag them over, and those who don't work fine - reinstall them. If they _still_ don't work fine, get updaters for them that work fine in Tiger.

3.) iLife should be somewhere on the DVDs you got with the PowerBook. Use Tinker Tool (see versiontracker.com or macupdate.com) to let the Finder show ALL files. Even hidden ones. Then go to the DVD and just browse around. You'll find the packages. After you've installed them on your archiveandreinstalled Tiger, you can turn the feature off again in Tiger.

If you _can_, however, I'd choose another road. Get a FW drive big enough for cloning your whole PB drive to it. Use Carbon Copy Cloner in 10.3.x to clone the drive. (Again, search VT or MU for that tool, see above.) After that, do a CLEAN install of Tiger with the FW drive disconnected.
Click to expand...

cool cool...yeah, to be honest, I haven't even put the Tiger DVD in my drive yet, but I got the upgrade from the Up-To-Date place, so I'm not even sure if it has the Clean Install option? I did consider it, though...and getting a FW drive is a pretty pricy thing, no?

Thanks for all the help, again!

EDIT: one more question...what if I don't like Tiger? How would I go about getting back to Panther?
 
lombarke said:
And when I'm done, I can drag my programs back over to the new system and all will be, theoretically, peachy. When I finally have everything back to where I want it, can I delete the "Old System" folder to conserve disk space? Or will that screw things up automatically?
Click to expand...

I installed Tiger 3 ways on an external firewire--including using archive and install/preserve user and network settings (A/P. On my AP installation, all my apps were automatically placed in my new "Applications" folder, except for older versions of apps updated in Tiger. I did not have to do anything special to get them to work (but there might be special steps required for some apps). I trashed those that were not Tiger compatible. You can trash your old system folder in absolute safety once you are sure you need nothing from it. I did not need a single thing from it to get everything working, but, still, hang on to it until you are sure.

Also, I have iLife '05 that came with my PowerBook (it's only 3 weeks old), and I read that I'd have to extract the files from the Panther CD that came with it...is there an "ilife" folder on the Panther CD that I just drag over or what?
Click to expand...

Some, or all, of the iLife 05 apps can be custom installed after Tiger is installed using your Panther DVDs. If anything is not custom installable, then you would be able to install it using Pacifist--assuming it is compatible enough with Tiger. VersionTracker says only that Pacifist is compatible through Panther. Pacifisit seems to be working OK on my machine.
 
lombarke said:
cool cool...yeah, to be honest, I haven't even put the Tiger DVD in my drive yet, but I got the upgrade from the Up-To-Date place, so I'm not even sure if it has the Clean Install option? I did consider it, though...and getting a FW drive is a pretty pricy thing, no?

EDIT: one more question...what if I don't like Tiger? How would I go about getting back to Panther?
Click to expand...

Using a firewire drive, as suggest by fryke, is an excellent idea. Tiger has these options--erase and install (clean install), archive and install and/or preserve user and network settings, and update. I lke the LaCie Porsche design firewire 400 250 GB--about $200 (much bang for the buck). You could go back, but there is no reason to prefer Panther to Tiger--at least once you get everything working right--which usually is not a big problem. You would just reinstall Panther from your Panther Disk. Or if you have a clone of your Panther internal on a firewire external, then you could clone it back.
 
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